I was recently asked by several journalists and politicians to help provide clarity on this question: “Is the ANC ready for a female president?”
Honestly, I was intrigued and puzzled by the motif and intention behind this question. The persons who asked this question were covertly trying to unearth my political standpoint on that issue. As an analyst, I don’t harbour any vested personal interest in the elective conferences of the ANC.
The ANC was formed at a time when global socio-political relations were anchored on masculinity, patriarchy and customary tradition. That epochal era compelled the ANC to initiate and forge its own revolutionary culture and tradition. All liberation movements worldwide are distinctly known and defined by their revolutionary culture and tradition.
The ANC’s obedient adherence to its revolutionary culture has enabled the party to survive for over 100 years. The determination of the ANC presidency has always been viewed from the prism of established revolutionary culture. Liberation movements are generally known for producing and grooming their own genre of leaders.
Since the 1949 ANC National Conference, the party’s president has always been succeeded by the deputy president. That macro-political complex came to define the determination of party presidency within the ANC.
When then ANC president, Dr James Moroka, resigned in 1952, his deputy president, Albert Luthuli, assumed the presidency. In 1960 Luthuli stepped down from presidency due to ill health and his deputy, Oliver Tambo, became president.
At the 1990 ANC Consultative Conference held in Zimbabwe, Nelson Mandela was elected deputy president. A year later president Tambo suffered a stroke and resigned as party president. Tambo’s then deputy president, Mandela, was resultantly elected party president. In 1994, Thabo Mbeki was elected ANC deputy president and he later succeeded President Mandela in 1997. At the 2007 ANC Polokwane Conference, deputy president Jacob Zuma emerged triumphant and succeeded president Mbeki.
The call from the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) for a “female president of the ANC” is not informed by any genuine interests. This call is largely fuelled by the pursuit of self-serving political opportunism and lumpen personality ambitions. The ANCWL is trying to prevent ANC deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, from becoming president in 2017. The women’s league’s declarative call is actually pushed and driven by some powerful bigwigs within the ANC.
Post 1994, the ANCWL has been used by some powerful individuals in the ANC to advance factional agendas. Members of the ANC will exclusively determine who becomes party president in 2017. The ANCWL has never been influential and instrumental in the determination of ANC leadership. The current breed of ANCWL leaders is evidently failing to comprehend the ANC’s revolutionary culture and morality. The ANC has survived many adversities because of its strict adherence to (its) political culture and tradition.
The 2017 ANC Conference is more likely to uphold the party’s revolutionary culture and tradition.
Elvis Masoga is a political analyst.
